Heavy Lifting: The Obsidian Contract
by ColdBlackCoat
Summary: A hard working, bounty hunting Orc warrior and the cocky magic loving Dark elf Dragonborn of legend are forced to work together under the threat of an ancient curse. Will they be able to overcome they're massive differences in order to subvert this powerful mysterious witchery? Or will their humorous bickering be their undoing?
1. Scaling and impaling

**Introducing the first main character- Tharsis the Orc!**

Bandits are the bane of my existence.

Don't get me wrong, hunting them has been a lucrative business. Tracking them down, smashing through their ranks with nothing but a hammer and collecting a sizable bounty for my efforts was, for lack of a better word, _thrilling._ It certainly makes the mead taste better when I'm regaling whatever bar I'm in with tales of my, somewhat gory, heroics.

It was the first step, the tracking them down part, that currently left me quite frigid. Literally.

After getting a tip from one of the local farmers about a possible bandit sighting near the base of one of the many, _many_ mountains near Whiterun, I was able to narrow down exactly where this particular group of bandits had been holed up. Unfortunately, they were stationed near the very top.

As I continued to scale the ever inclining slope of this gigantic slab of rock and snow, I couldn't help but to pick up faint noises echoing from above. They almost sounded like battle cries and possibly... roars? From an animal?

It sounded just like a bear, but that'd be ridiculous. If these idiots went and tried to set up camp in a bears cave then I probably had a fairly easy job of cleaning up to do once I got up there, but I'm never that lucky.

As I grasped the slippery edge of a jutted out boulder, I peered over just in time to see that today was, indeed, my lucky day.

My mouth gaped at the sight of the largest bear I'd ever seen tearing out the throat of what I assumed to be the bandits leader based on his armor which seemed sturdier than the armor his very dead teammates were wearing.

He'd probably lasted the longest because of it.

The sounds of the bandit leader choking on his own blood while holding his gashed throat and the bear letting out a triumphant roar let me know the confrontation came to an abrupt end. I could have left just then, the bandits were good and dead (served them right for thinking they could take refuge in a bear's cave and turning it into their lair), but I needed to get proof that I took care of the bandits in order to claim the bounty. However, there seemed to be at least 950 pounds of pissed off brown bear impeding my progress.

Luckily, he hadn't noticed me yet, so I figured I could sneak past him.

I got as low as I possibly could for a man of my impressive height, at first I stuck to the thin cover of rocks, then some small plants and when I ran out of stuff to hide behind I'd gotten to the point where I was about 5 feet away from the bandit leader's corpse anyway. The bear, meanwhile, had moved to the very lightly armored corpse of a female bandit who'd had her torso ripped open. After tearing away her cloak, he started to feast on her lower abdomen… a fairly unpleasant but not too uncommon sight in my line of work.

I finally got to the remains of the bandit leader, thankfully he was so armored up the bear ended up skipping him entirely. His body was in pristine condition, save for the giant gash on his throat, and all of his gear was perfectly salvageable. I quickly got to work, looting his pockets of the stolen gems and golden rings that were there. After that was done I quietly removed his blood soaked steel helmet and placed it in my pack, easy proof that the bandits were killed… one way or another.

Now that I'd gotten sufficient evidence that the bandits were dead I started on my way back down the mountain, the bear was almost done with his… meal, and I was extremely lucky that he hadn't noticed me yet. As I swung my leg over the edge of the path back down, I took a moment to look back at the scene… and it was my undoing.

Near the bear I spied a particular item that I'd been looking for desperately for the past month. A giant steel battle-axe, with an enchantment no less! It glowed with a reddish hue, it's handle, which was embedded in a patch of pure white snow, seemed to have an inscription carved into it. The blade of the weapon was inscribed in a similar fashion, but from where I was I couldn't make out what it said.

I couldn't just leave it there, it was as if it was calling to me. I placed my leg back on solid ground and moved over to a small cliff that was situated a few yards away. I knew eventually the bear had to go back into his cave and sleep off his dinner, and when he did I'd just make a mad dash for the weapon. Easy as pie.

*Two Hours Later*

Ok, so I've watched him eat five people… not a big deal, I've seen worse, and pace around sniffing the ground trying to track down what might've been my scent which is why this cliff idea was smart on my part, but, unfortunately, that's where my smart ideas came to an end.

Two hours of me reading the same books and freezing my ass off while waiting for this bear to go and hibernate was starting to eat away at my nerves, that and the fact that I was doing all of this for a damned weapon. Alas, I'd already spent so much time waiting him out that I might as well-

Is he biting on it?

"No… NO… " **NOOOO!"** I screamed out loud, as I now saw that the bear was in fact chewing on the handle of the aforementioned axe, ruining the inscription.

"You stupid beast! You've eaten already, go take your nap!" I yelled, but the bear paid no mind to my outburst, instead opting to sink his teeth even further into the handle, as if it were some sort of chew toy.

Anyone else would've left then, leaving the bear to its devices, but I'm not just anyone else. Although it made no sense, somehow I'd figured the bear was trying to spite me and it made my orcish blood boil, with my sharp front teeth clenching in frustration I grabbed the hilt of my beat-up looking iron warhammer and drew it out, it's metal scraped against the holding satchel on my back making a _chinking_ noise that caused the bear to finally look up at me. I jumped off the cliff, landing with a thud on the snow below, my rage making me ignore the minor pain in my knees from the fall.

"Well?! This is what you wanted right? A _real_ fight with a _real_ warrior?!" I shouted, clearly having lost my mind, the bear roared its response, scraping his sharp claws against the snow and bearing his wickedly sharp teeth in an attempt to intimidate me.

It didn't work, and so we stood there, sizing each other up. The atmosphere was thick with blood lust, I was determined to kill this bear and skin it to stave off the damnable cold it had made me sit through.

After about three minutes of snarling with the bear I decided to move first, I lunged forward and crashed my hammer powerfully down into his back. Barely fazed by the attack, the bear responded in kind by swiping at me wildly. I dunked under his giant furry paw and aimed my hammer at the beast's head, hoping to end this quickly. The grizzly menace saw it coming, though, and jumped back just in time to avoid the blow, only to leap forward again to deliver a slash to my unprotected flesh, gashing my chest and providing a sizable cut.

"Damn I've got to be more careful" I said aloud, I held a hand to my wound as backed, unknowingly, into a corner. The bear followed me and swiped at me twice more as I stepped back, hitting the wall behind me. Although the first swipe bit into my cheek I was able to catch the second with my hammer and knock the bear off balance long enough to get a good shot at his gut. This time the bear seemed visibly shaken from the impact and staggered back a safe distance, slowly pacing around me.

This was going to take a while.

*Five more minutes and another standoff later*

At that point we were both fairly tired, and I could see the bear thinking about whether he should still fight or leave, I couldn't explain it but he gave me this… look. A look that asked if we really had to do this, and honestly I was asking myself the same question, did I really want to kill this bear? It was just defending its territory, and it sort of saved me the trouble of smashing a bunch of bandits up.

Could I just walk away and trust he wouldn't slash my back open and eat me like I'm a late dinner?

In a show of uncertain trust, I started pacing back slowly in the direction of the axe. I placed my old warhammer down and picked up the enchanted treasure I'd sought after this entire time. As I held it up, I saw it shine even brighter in the dawning sunlight. Then I looked over to the bear, who was still observing me from a safe distance. I sheathed the new axe to show I understood our silent truce, and what happened next was something I couldn't believe with my own eyes.

The bear turned away from me and walked back to his cave, when he got inside he laid down with his back to me, let out a huge yawn and fell into a deep slumber almost instantly.

I blinked twice, and then again. When I was sure that all of this was real, I smiled and nodded my head slightly in the bears direction. I left immediately, with the story still fresh in my mind and a new powerful axe on my back.


	2. Snafu

-Snafu-

Oren shifted constantly in his seat next to the campfire.

There was nothing for it, the winds that blew down from the mountains near the border of Skyrim were enough to cause his teeth to chatter and his fingers to go numb.

He leaned towards the flames and held both of his hands out, his ashen palms glowing in the light of the dwindling blaze.

' _Grow'_ Oren thought, and almost instantly the fire grew in size. As Oren withdrew his hands he shivered, not from the cold but from the effort it took to perform the spell. Usually novice level magic like this would've been a lesson in tedium for a mage of his talent, but over the past few weeks he'd been traveling, he found his strength slowly fading due to a lack of rations and an even more severe lack of rest.

Oren turned his head slightly to look over at the tent he'd managed to set up with the few supplies he still had in his possession. It was a curious creation, fashioned from a bedsheet cut into two triangular shapes held up in the middle by a long branch from the same tree he'd secured his firewood from and held in place, as to not be blown away by the ever present windstream, by two large rocks each the size of Oren's entire head.

Inside of it lie a comfortable looking bedroll that the mage couldn't help but stare at constantly. His desire to sleep inside of it's comfy confines almost defied reasonable thought.

Almost.

Oren knew all matter of dangerous beast lie on the border, including sabertooth cats, bears, ogres, skeevers, wolves, giant spiders and, from what he'd read in his provincial tomes, even the undead. That wasn't the least of his concerns though, bandits roamed the border as well, looking for a way into Skyrim illegally and picking off anyone they couldn't recruit into their ranks.

"I need to lay down a few wards before I can even think of sleeping peacefully" Oren groaned before standing. "Surveillance wards take priority" he reasoned to himself.

A yawn tore itself from his throat for lengthy period of time. He blinked blearily and stared up at the night sky with half closed eyes. A million tiny shining dots filled the heavens above, a few even shot across the endless darkness at speeds he couldn't yet fathom in his sleep deprived mind.

He looked forward towards the open grassy fields that lie in front of his makeshift campsite, the weeds danced as the cold wind blew by, frost accumulating on the tips of each tiny blade.

Oren decided to stop stalling and get on with it, once again setting his palms out. He turned away from the campfire as an otherworldly light coalesced in his outstretched hands. He brought them together with a sweeping gesture, fancifully drawing an oval in the open space in front of himself and began to chant quietly. In a matter of moments his breathing became laboured, an entirely new feeling of fatigue dawning on him.

The mage started to shake where he stood, but stayed upright for fear that he'd let loose the warding before it was completed. Oren gritted his teeth and through an immense effort of willpower gathered his magicka and set off the spell on the ground before him. The earth in front of him quivered and shook as the unnatural force set itself on top of it, the completed ward glowed eerily in the night.

Oren fell back into his chair with a huff.

'One down-' he started, and again he looked up at the night sky seeking solace in it's endless depths. '-And two more to go..'.

Oren was awoken by the sound of hoofbeats outside of his camp. Curious, he climbed out of his bedroll before stealthily making his way over to the front flaps of his tent.

The mage gently pulled at the sheet, making sure to open it just enough so that his right eye could peer through.

Oren gasped.

Outside were a band of nords dressed in official looking armor, clearly the Imperials he was going to get into contact with once he got to the border.

Each carried two weapons strapped crudely to their hips by leather straps, axes and swords seemed to be the most preferable choice but the smallest member of the group only carried daggers at his sides. Somehow that made Oren think he was the most troublesome.

'Something is wrong here' Oren surmised, 'my wards should've told me someone was coming, especially multiple someones'.

He was suddenly shaken from his ponderings when he heard a terrifyingly loud pop that reverberated throughout his small tent. This was immediately followed by a horrifying scream and the unmistakable sound of a frightened horse running away.

The smell of something burning was all Oren needed to confirm his hypothesis, the spell he cast last night was not what he thought it had been.

"Demons! There's demons about!", Oren heard one of them shout "Gregory's been set aflame!".

Oren chanced another peek outside of his tent flap to see that, yes, a man was fast burning on the ground between himself and the other nords, so engulfed in the scarlet flames that he couldn't even scream.

"Well this is going to be hard to explain.." the mage said lamely and perhaps a little too loudly.

All of the guards (minus the one still burning to death on the ground) snapped around to the source of their sudden bereavement.

"Ok so..., you all are probably wondering-"

"Seize him!"


	3. Get together

-x-

North had grown accustomed to what he started to call 'the smell of Skyrim'.

It was the smell of rotting corpses of the undead as they shambled towards you from their ancient tombs with their equally as old weapons at the ready.

It was the aroma of mead on the breath of a disgruntled bandit as they bore down on you with their shoddy armaments and foul mouths.

It was the odd perfume-like substance that emits from the Thalmor as they berated the occasional weary traveler that would cross paths with them on the open road.

North took a deep breath and exhaled it, smiling.

"What's that look?" his companion, Borgakh the Steel Heart, asked with a smirk of her own.

"Did kitty find something to play with?" she said, laughing.

North frowned, she'd been teasing him relentlessly ever since she'd gotten him drunk one night and scratched him under his chin.

The result is that he'd purred.

"I told you to quit calling me that!" he growled, hoping to sound threatening. The khajiit quickly deflated when he heard even louder laughter in response.

"Aww, don't hiss at me like that kitten" she continued unabated, now clutching her stomach from laughing so hard .

"Honestly, I can't take you anywhere…" North groaned, "let's just get on with this hunt".

Borgakh, never one to pick up on social queues, wrapped one of her arms around her companions shoulders. "Alright, where we headin'?"

" The rundown castle" North pointed up ahead, "should be where all of those bandits that've been highjacking carts on the roads leading up to Rorikstead are holed up."

"Well then, I'm right behind ya."

"Be careful" he warned.

"Me?" the orc snorted, and then gestured to herself with an incredulous expression. " **I'm** wearing armor, and I have a weapon," she said, "you on the other hand…"

"Ohh? That almost sounds like a challenge Steel Heart" North said, "My fists versus your steel? Dinner's on the winner?"

"It's on!"

-On a road near Helgen-

*Tharsis*

I was making my to Whiterun to turn in my completed bounty when I ran across an old friend of mine on the road.

"Ho! Lydia!" I called to her jovially, but when she turned at the sound of her name being called I saw she was covered from head to boots in blood.

I froze on the spot, my mouth slightly agape and immediately reached for the new axe I had strapped to my back. "Lydia!" this time I roared, feet pounding the dirt as I ran to her in a panic.

To Lydia's credit, she acted as calmly as one would expect at the sight of an orc charging at you with his axe out. In a flash she had her shield in front of her and her long sword halfway drawn before recognition flashed in her eyes.

"Thar...sis?" she questioned slowly, still backing away as she said it. "What are you doing?!".

I halted a few paces from her and looked around. "Where's the danger?" I said quickly, still on high alert.

"Oh this?" Lydia said, gesturing to the gore covering her body, in a tone that was a little too relaxed for my liking. "I thought you of all people would recognize goats blood" she finished with a little laugh.

Upon closer inspection, I noticed that, yes, it was goats blood. Most likely it was from the dead goat right behind her.

I scratched the back of my head, beyond embarrassed by my blunder and hurried to find something else to talk about.

"Look! I've got a new axe!"

"Ha, I've noticed," she said, smirking,"maybe next time you want to show me something new, you don't come running at me with it, screaming your head off."

"Ah… yeah… sorry" I finished lamely.

Lydia gave me a sympathetic look and decided to drop it. "That is a nice axe though, it's even got an enchantment! How'd you manage to get your hands on that?"

"I won it off a bear!"

Lydia crossed her arms and gave me an odd look, "fine don't tell me then."

"I swear it," I said, "a bunch of bandits camped out in a bears cave and this was a part of their loot."

"So… chances are it's stolen."

I sheathed the axe on my back and smiled, "You know the rules, finders keepers."

Lydia scoffed and playfully punched my arm "honestly, you're such a child at times."

"My friend! You wound me, I'm a gentleman above all else!"

"Bull"

"And I thought that goat over there had it rough," I said, joining in on the laughter, "speaking of…"

The Nords mood seemed to sour almost instantly, "the… the Thalmor wanted fresh meat while they waited for the executions to start."

I couldn't help but grimace at this new revelation, it was no secret that Nords and Thalmor didn't mix. Ever since the White Gold Concordat was signed and the worship of Talos was prohibited, a civil war broke out between those Nords that would bow to the Empire and the rebellious Stormcloaks.

I know what side Lydia stands on, so having to serve the Thalmor in any capacity must be infuriating for her.

"Need some help carrying all that meat back?" I offered, " I'm heading to Whiterun anyway so it won't be much of a detour."

"Ha, would you look at that, you really are a gentleman." She walked back over to the goat and drew a knife, "give me a minute to cut this up and we'll be off."

She had the meat separated and stored in two separate bags in about ten minutes, and, after hauling one of those bags over my shoulder, we set off.

Little did I know, this short trek would lead me on an adventure that would change the fate of Skyrim for all time.


End file.
